Who Can Actually Get a Free Heart Scan Through Broward's Panthers Heart Program?

On November 18, 2025, Broward County Mayor Mark Bogen announced at a County Commission meeting the return of a free heart testing program, now called the Broward County/Florida Panthers Preventive Heart Program. The county's website describes it as a partnership between Broward County and the Florida Panthers Foundation, with the tests provided by Cleveland Clinic.¹ Cleveland Clinic's sign-up page describes it as free preventive cardiac screening for Broward County residents and says that neither the participant nor the participant's insurer will be billed for the screening test.³ The test offered is a coronary computed tomography angiography, or CCTA, scan.⁴

The claim holds, for a narrower group than the word "residents" suggests. To qualify, an applicant must be between 45 and 70, live in Broward and carry active health insurance. The applicant should also report at least one cardiac risk factor and should not currently have chest pain or shortness of breath, among other listed exclusions. A clinical review makes the final decision.⁵,⁶ The scan is free to those who get through. None of the prevention guidance in this record recommends that kind of scan for people without symptoms.¹¹

Who runs it and who pays?

Broward County and the Florida Panthers Foundation pay, and Cleveland Clinic performs the tests.¹ The county says the program is "initially funded by more than $3 million in remaining proceeds from the initial $10 million investment by the Broward County Commission, plus a $1 million investment by the Florida Panthers Foundation."² The word "initially" carries weight here. The county page gives no end date and no count of remaining slots.¹,² The Cleveland Clinic page states no cap either, and it notes that response times may vary.³

Who qualifies?

The detail sits in a Cleveland Clinic document titled Qualifying and Disqualifying Criteria, linked from the sign-up page. Its file name carries 'v3', and it is undated.⁵ An applicant must answer yes to three questions: "Are you between the ages of 45 and 70? Do you live in Broward County? Do you have active health insurance?"⁵ The applicant must also answer yes to at least one risk factor: diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a history of smoking, or a parent or sibling with coronary disease.⁶

The same form lists conditions that may rule an applicant out. These include current chest pain or shortness of breath, prior stents or heart surgery, a recent CT angiogram or calcium score, and active chemotherapy or immunotherapy.⁶ The form is aimed at people without symptoms. It flags current chest pain or shortness of breath as a reason screening may not be appropriate. The form does not explain the clinical reason for each exclusion.⁶

The two Cleveland Clinic documents do not quite agree on age. The web page asks only "Are you 45 years of age or older?" The linked form sets the range at 45 to 70.³,⁵ The web page also says eligibility is limited to current Broward residents "who meet specific medical criteria."³

How do you apply?

The county page sends applicants to a form "to see if you qualify."¹ That form is the online application on the Cleveland Clinic page. Submitting it is not an approval.³ A clinical review by the care team makes the final decision, so the screening questions are a first filter. They do not guarantee a scan.⁵

What is the test?

The program describes CCTA as "essentially a CT scan of the heart."⁴ A CT calcium score test is offered as an alternative to otherwise eligible participants who are allergic to iodine or who have other disqualifying criteria.⁴ The page lists the radiation exposure and the iodine allergy risk. It gives no data on how the test performs and no evidence on outcomes.⁴

What does it cost?

For the screening test, nothing. The provider page states: "No participant or their insurance provider will be billed for the screening test."³ The applicant must still hold active health insurance to qualify.⁵ That requirement excludes uninsured residents from a test for which no one is billed. The current pages do not say why insurance is required. The pages describe the test as free. They make no such statement about any care that follows a result.³

What does the guidance say?

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued its statement on July 10, 2018. It concluded that "the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms" of adding a coronary artery calcium score to traditional risk assessment in adults without symptoms.¹⁰ That statement covers calcium scoring, not CCTA, and the Task Force page says an update is in progress.¹⁰

The 2019 ACC/AHA guideline on primary prevention, published March 17, 2019, is more favourable to calcium scoring, but only for a defined group. For adults at borderline or intermediate risk, it calls a calcium score "a reasonable tool to reclassify risk either upward or downward, as part of shared decision-making."¹¹ The portion of the guideline reviewed addresses coronary artery calcium scoring and does not recommend CCTA for screening.¹¹

That leaves the program's main test without a prevention guideline behind it in this record. The calcium score, which the guidance does address, is the program's fallback test.⁴,¹¹ One limitation applies here. Both documents predate the program, and the 2018 Task Force statement is under revision.¹⁰,¹¹